[M T]

The most useful planning nugget I got from Dr. Cody was that 5% of infections require hospitalization. That's what Italy's numbers now show, but I wonder if Italy is bringing more people into the hospital than the U.S. is.

The reporter (not Dr. Cody) wrote

Yet people with minor illness can unwittingly transmit the virus to others, with catastrophic consequences for an estimated five percent of those affected.

Italy passed the naive CFR of 5% two weeks ago.
The Italy numbers currently are 59,138 confirmed, 5476 deaths, 7024 recovered.  The naive CFR is currently 9.3%. 
It will rise above that (I'd guess by a factor of roughly 2).     Those that want to divide it by 2 for presumed asymptomatic infections, will use 4.65% Infection Fatality Rate.  

Maybe the report had the old Italy numbers for fatalities (not hospitalizations) in mind.

Why are Italy's numbers worse than China's numbers?  For one thing, demographics.  Italy has a much higher percentage (roughly a factor of 2) older people.
I calculated the age group CFRs for Italy, and their overall CFR came up that it should be double China's, if all the treatment was the same.

Secondly, Italy is losing more patients due to a greater overrun of its health care system.  Patients that might have survived, aren't.

[M T]

The most useful planning nugget I got from Dr. Cody was that 5% of infections require hospitalization. That's what Italy's numbers now show, but I wonder if Italy is bringing more people into the hospital than the U.S. is.

The reporter (not Dr. Cody) wrote

Yet people with minor illness can unwittingly transmit the virus to others, with catastrophic consequences for an estimated five percent of those affected.

Italy passed the naive CFR of 5% two weeks ago.
The Italy numbers currently are 59,138 confirmed, 5476 deaths, 7024 recovered.  The naive CFR is currently 9.3%. 
It will rise above that (I'd guess by a factor of roughly 2).     Those that want to divide it by 2 for presumed asymptomatic infections, will use 4.65% Infection Fatality Rate.  

Maybe the report had the old Italy numbers for fatalities (not hospitalizations) in mind.

Why are Italy's numbers worse than China's numbers?  For one thing, demographics.  Italy has a much higher percentage (roughly a factor of 2) older people.
I calculated the age group CFRs for Italy, and their overall CFR came up that it should be double China's, if all the treatment was the same.

Secondly, Italy is losing more patients due to a greater overrun of its health care system.  Patients that might have survived, aren't.